Tiny Core Linux

2009 → today · Linux & Unix

A very small Linux, first released in 2009.³ It runs from memory, starts fresh each time,² and is still updated as of November 2026.^{1, 9}

▶ Try it Sources

First release: Tiny Core Linux 1.0, 5 January 2009³
Founder: Robert Shingledecker⁴
License: GNU GPL version 2⁵
Our lesson uses: Core 16.2, from September 2025⁷

Why it was made

Robert Shingledecker founded Tiny Core.⁴ In December 2008 he wrote down its goal: a very small desktop system that starts fast from a CD, a USB stick or a hard disk. Tiny Core always runs from memory, and users add only the programs and hardware support they choose.¹

Black text screen with Tiny Core's penguin drawn in characters, the line 'Core is distributed with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. www.tinycorelinux.net', then 'Press <Enter> to begin or F2, F3, or F4 to view boot options.' and a boot: prompt. — The start screen of the Core 16.2 CD in our virtual PC. Pressing Enter at the boot: prompt starts Tiny Core.

What it looks like

Our lesson uses Core, the smallest edition. It has only a command line, with no desktop,⁶ and its whole CD is about 19 MB.¹⁰ Tiny Core uses the Linux kernel and BusyBox,² one small program that holds tiny versions of many common Unix commands.¹¹ It leaves out programs like a web browser, and you download the ones you want.²

Black text screen. At the top, Tiny Core's penguin drawn with characters and the line 'Core is distributed with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. www.tinycorelinux.net'. Below, at the tc@box:~$ prompt, the command version answers 16.2, and the command cal prints a calendar for November 2026. — Tiny Core 16.2 in our virtual PC. The version command shows the version number, and cal prints a calendar of the current month.

Where it is today

As of November 2026, the newest version is 17.1, from July 2026.^{1, 9} Besides Core, there is TinyCore, which adds a graphical desktop, and there are versions for 64-bit PCs and the Raspberry Pi.⁶ Like the first versions, it still runs from memory.^{1, 2}

Black text screen with Tiny Core's penguin banner. At the tc@box:~$ prompt, the command free prints a table with the columns total, used, free, shared, buff/cache and available, for Mem (117608 total) and Swap (19720 total). — In our virtual PC, the free command shows Tiny Core's memory use in kilobytes.

Key moments

2009 Tiny Core Linux 1.0, the first release, comes out on 5 January.³
2009 Version 2.0 comes out on 7 June. It adds Micro Core, a 7 MB edition with no graphical desktop.⁸
2013 Lauri Kasanen and others publish Into the Core, a book about Tiny Core that is free to download.¹²
2025 Core 16.2, the version in our lesson, comes out on 29 September.⁷